RDoc - Ruby Documentation System
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Description
RDoc produces
HTML and command-line documentation for Ruby projects. RDoc includes
the rdoc
and ri
tools for generating and displaying
documentation from the command-line.
Generating Documentation
Once
installed, you can create documentation using the rdoc
command
$ rdoc [options] [names...]
For an up-to-date option summary, type
$ rdoc --help
A typical use might be to generate documentation for a package of Ruby source (such as RDoc itself).
$ rdoc
This command
generates documentation for all the Ruby and C source files in and below the
current directory. These will be stored in a documentation tree starting in the
subdirectory doc
.
You can make this slightly more useful for your readers by having the index page contain the documentation for the primary file. In our case, we could type
% rdoc --main README.rdoc
You‘ll find information on the various formatting tricks you can use in comment blocks in the documentation this generates.
RDoc uses
file extensions to determine how to process each file. File names ending .rb
and .rbw
are assumed to be Ruby source. Files
ending .c
are
parsed as C files. All other files are assumed to contain just Markup-style
markup (with or without leading ‘#‘ comment markers). If directory names are
passed to RDoc, they are scanned
recursively for C and Ruby source files only.
To generate
documentation using rake
see RDoc::Task.
To generate documentation programmatically:
gem ‘rdoc‘ require ‘rdoc/rdoc‘ options = RDoc::Options.new # see RDoc::Options rdoc = RDoc::RDoc.new rdoc.document options # see RDoc::RDoc
Writing Documentation
To write documentation for RDoc place a comment above the class, module, method, constant, or attribute you want documented:
## # This class represents an arbitrary shape by a series of points. class Shape ## # Creates a new shape described by a +polyline+. # # If the +polyline+ does not end at the same point it started at the # first pointed is copied and placed at the end of the line. # # An ArgumentError is raised if the line crosses itself, but shapes may # be concave. def initialize polyline # ... end end
The default
comment markup format is the RDoc::Markup format. TomDoc, Markdown and RD format
comments are also supported. You can set the default comment format for your
entire project by creating a .rdoc_options
file. See Saved
Options at RDoc::Options for
instructions on creating one. You can also set the comment format for a single
file through the :markup:
directive, but this is only
recommended if you wish to switch markup formats. See Other
directives at RDoc::Markup.
Comments can contain directives that tell RDoc information that it cannot otherwise discover through parsing. See Directives at RDoc::Markup to control what is or is not documented, to define method arguments or to break up methods in a class by topic. See RDoc::Parser::Ruby for directives used to teach RDoc about metaprogrammed methods.
See RDoc::Parser::C for documenting C extensions with RDoc.
To determine
how well your project is documented run rdoc
-C lib
to get a
documentation coverage report. rdoc
-C1 lib
includes
parameter names in the documentation coverage report.
Bugs
See Bugs at CONTRIBUTING for information on filing a bug report. It‘s OK to file a bug report for anything you‘re having a problem with. If you can‘t figure out how to make RDoc produce the output you like that is probably a documentation bug.
License
RDoc is Copyright ? 2001-2003 Dave Thomas, The Pragmatic Programmers. Portions ? 2007-2011 Eric Hodel. Portions copyright others, see individual files and LEGAL.rdoc for details.
RDoc is free software, and may be redistributed under the terms specified in LICENSE.rdoc.
Warranty
This software is provided “as is” and without any express or implied warranties, including, without limitation, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.